Payment I sent not showing up in activity nor e-mail notification of sent funds

[Spaney]

Hello,

I'm curious why sending funds to someone would not immediately show up in my activity log, even if it were in pending state.

I have my CC as primary payment option, and I have read a CC does not ensure an "instant payment", as a Bank Account would.

The almost $1000 I sent is within my total limit.

Because it does not show on my activity, I even have no way to cancel it, and re-submit it using the Bank as prefered payment to ensure an "instant payment".

If the payment is pending, I need to be 100% aware it's in that state, and Paypal needs to ensure of that when working with my money.

I also did not receive an e-mail, being that I have e-mail notifications when any funds are sent from my personal account.

The only conclusion from this lack of feedback is that I must have made a mistake in sending the funds, or it timed out in the webpage.

But regardless, the lack of feedback leads to an even less favorable situation of 1) having to unprofessionally reach out to the seller to confirm if they got anything from me and 2) having to consider to repeat the payment process with the risk of paying twice for something.

The seller replied and asked if I had "instant payment" set, which seems to be associated with having a bank account set.

On a side note, is it possible to change to Bank as primary, perform the transaction, then change back to Credit, is it that instantaneous?

Also, if there was an error during my submission, I would expect Paypal to pop-up a message warning of it, give me some clue people.

As soon as I sent, the system simply went back to the main menu.

What would you do here?

[sharpiemarker · Accepted solution]

@Spaney 

"I'm curious why sending funds to someone would not immediately show up in my activity log, even if it were in pending state."

Typically, a transaction record would appear in your activity as pending or completed fairly instantly. There are times when a payment is pending as under review before it gets sent to the recipient.

"I have my CC as primary payment option, and I have read a CC does not ensure an "instant payment", as a Bank Account would."

Actually credit cards are quicker and preferred over bank payments, hence why checkout asks for card as back up for bank payments so PayPal can do  instant transfer (PayPal fronts the money ahead to the recipient and awaits for your bank payment to clear or charges your credit card if insufficient):

https://www.paypal.com/us/smarthelp/article/how-do-i-send-money-right-away-via-paypal-using-my-bank-...

Otherwise, it goes as an eCheck:

https://www.paypal.com/us/smarthelp/article/what-is-an-echeck-faq1082

Could be some kind of glitch or lag and I would suggest you contact customer service to look up your account and check what happened before resending that amount of money again:

Log on, click HELP on top menu, scroll down to click CONTACT US, and then scroll down to click CALL US or other contact options.

Call early, during business hours, west coast time to try to get a US rep. 

Or contact via social media:

Facebook (US): https://www.facebook.com/paypal

Twitter (US): @AskPayPal 

"On a side note, is it possible to change to Bank as primary, perform the transaction, then change back to Credit, is it that instantaneous?"

Yes, you can select bank account as you preferred payment method for online purchases on the Wallet page, or the Payments tab via Account Settings (gear icon). Since you also have a credit card linked, you can do instant transfer with bank as described in the first url.

"As soon as I sent, the system simply went back to the main menu."

Wait, you didn't see a screen like this after you sent payment? Hmmm.

Screen with big green check mark with text that says, "You've sent $x.xx to [Recipient Name]

I'd call PayPal customer service to double check.

[Spaney]

Thanks,

I did call them.

They said that the seller had a problem with receiving funds, had been flagged, and therefore the transaction did not go through, and therefore it would not show up in my activity log as a transaction.

Still, something as simple as "Paypal did not allow the transaction to go through, contact seller for alternative payment options" is not that hard to notify me on.